SWATting

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SWATting

Postby elfismiles » Mon Jul 02, 2012 9:41 am

This started as a reply to the "obscene phone calls" thread but seemed too divurgent so ...

Stephen Morgan wrote:Are there still obscene phone calls? ... So, have they stopped?


No, nowadays the obscene calls just get innocent people obscenely SWAT teamed ... sometimes deliberately on behalf of the obscene hacker/callers. They call it SWATting... the CNN piece says "conservative bloggers" claim its being used against them.



Swatting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting
Swatting is an attempt to trick an emergency service (such as a 9-1-1 dispatcher) into dispatching an emergency response team. The name is derived from SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics), one type of such team. Such action places law enforcement and citizens at risk and are criminal actions. In addition it reduces law enforcement officer (LEO) coverage and costs taxpayer money.

CNN Spotlights the 'SWATting' Phenomenon - National Review Online
http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign- ... phenomenon
Jun 9, 2012 – Jim Geraghty writes on NRO: CNN did a good report yesterday on the phenomenon of SWATting, and interviewed network contributor Erick ...

Latest SWATting Victim Is…Brett Kimberlin? Bloggers Work to Debunk
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/latest- ... to-debunk/
Jun 11, 2012 – Could convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin possibly have been the victim of a SWATting attack? That seems to be what he's alleging -- but ...

Bluegrass Pundit: Fired: NBC Producer who made fake Zimmerman ...
Apr 6, 2012 – Fired: NBC Producer who made fake Zimmerman 911 call tape fired. NBC still claims it .... Politico Reporter: Romney Only Comfortable Around .
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/05 ... -erickson/

Police Kill Teenager and Blame Man that made Fake 911 Call ...
http://www.eurweb.com/2012/03/pasadena- ... -911-call/
Mar 30, 2012 – Fake 911 call leads to the death of college student, Kendrec McDade, 19. *The world is finally seeing the ... Joe Williams Fired by Politico ...

Horror!… Bogus Call Sends Police to Home of Bomber Kimberlin ...
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/05 ... -erickson/
May 27, 2012 – .sentenced to three years in prison for phoning in a false 911 call that led authorities to swarm a Lake Forest house and handcuff innocent ...

Police: 'Threat matrix' dictated SWAT team response at Powell Avenue home
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2012/j ... ide-arent/

Online threat — but SWAT team raids wrong house
18-year-old was watching Food Network when door came down, stun grenade went off
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48018051/ns ... e-security


Of course, in those last 2 articles it seems obvious these kinds of cases are partly being used by police to potentially demand more strict legislation RE: secure wifi.

But these are yet more great examples of the kinds of military creep that are increasing across the country, endangering innocent law abiding people while the "military creeps" (the guys in the SWAT teams) get off scott-free in their over-zealous rampages through "the people's" homes and community.

EDIT: I think it was cyber-stalking-troll Socrates (Seth Allen) under one of many usernames (LeftiesDon'tSupportRivero) who posted the only link on RI that I can find re: Kimberlin):

Original PI owner gives up, gives to whack jobs
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=25324&p=289999&hilit=kimberlin#p289999
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Re: SWATting

Postby elfismiles » Fri Sep 19, 2014 3:11 pm

Illinois judge rules police entitled to Swat raid over parody Twitter account
A Swat team burst into a Peoria house looking for the source of parody Twitter account that had upset the town’s mayor
Ed Pilkington in New York
theguardian.com, Friday 19 September 2014 13.30 EDT

Image


Jon Daniel created a spoof Twitter account in the name of Peoria’s mayor. His housemate now faces felony marijuana possession charges. Photograph: M. Spencer Green/AP


The police hadn’t even come for him. When four fully-armed officers of a Swat team burst into Jacob Elliott’s house in Peoria, Illinois in April they were looking for the source of a parody Twitter feed that had upset the town’s mayor by poking fun at him.


It transpired that one of Elliott’s housemates, Jon Daniel, had created the fake Twitter account, @peoriamayor, and so incensed the real-life official, Jim Ardis, with his make-believe account of drug binges and sex orgies that the police were dispatched. Elliott was just a bystander in the affair, but that didn’t stop the Swat team searching his bedroom, looking under his pillow and in a closet where they discovered a bag of marijuana and dope-smoking paraphernalia.

Elliott now faces charges of felony marijuana possession. He has also become the subject of one of the more paradoxical – if not parody – questions in American jurisprudence: can a citizen be prosecuted for dope possession when the police were raiding his home looking for a fake Twitter account?

A Peoria judge this week ruled that the police were entitled to raid the house on North University Street on 15 April under the town’s “false personation” law which makes it illegal to pass yourself off as a public official. Judge Thomas Keith found that police had probable cause to believe they would find materials relevant to the Twitter feed such as computers or flash drives used to create it.

Daniel created the social media feed when he was bored one night and thought he would amuse himself and a handful of friends by deriding the mayor. In a stream of fake comments in 140 characters, he portrayed Ardis as a Tequila-sodden, sex- and drug-addicted oaf. “Im bout to climb the civic center and do some lines on the roof who’s in,” one tweet said.

Daniel was never charged as the local prosecutor decided that “false personation” could only be committed in the flesh rather than through cyberspace. But his housemate, Elliott, still has the marijuana rap hanging over him and this week’s court ruling means that his attempt to have his charges dismissed on grounds that the original police raid was mistaken has failed.

Meanwhile, Daniel has turned the law back against the authorities in Peoria, a town with a population of 120,000. With the help of the ACLU he has filed a lawsuit against the town for wrongful arrest.

“You can’t do terrorist type of things or threaten people. But a simple joke, a parody, mocking somebody, that’s obviously not illegal,” he told Associated Press.

As for the mayor, he has tried to justify his reaction to the Twitter spoof by claiming that it had damaged his standing. “My identity as mayor was stolen,” he said a few weeks after he dispatched the police.

It is not known whether he now regrets his decision to send in the Swat team. One measure of its success is that there is no longer one parody feed ridiculing Ardis on Twitter – there are 15.


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/s ... oria-mayor
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Re: SWATting

Postby Laodicean » Fri Sep 19, 2014 8:37 pm



Gamers use 'swatting' hoax to lash out at opponents

By SADIE GURMAN, Associated Press

Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014 - 8:15 p.m.

DENVER -- The calls to 911 raised an instant alarm: One caller said he shot his co-workers at a Colorado video game company and had hostages. Another in Florida said her father was drunk, wielding a machine gun and threatening their family.

A third caller on New York's Long Island claimed to have killed his mother and threatened to shoot first responders.

In each case, SWAT teams dispatched to the scene found no violent criminals or wounded victims -- only video game players sitting at their computers, the startled victims of a hoax known as "swatting."

Authorities say the hoax that initially targeted celebrities has now become a way for players of combat-themed video games to retaliate against opponents while thousands of spectators watch. The perpetrators can watch their hijinks unfold minute by minute in a window that shows a live video image of other players.

"It's like creating your own episode of 'Cops,'" said Dr. John Grohol, a research psychologist who studies online behavior, referring to the long-running reality TV show that follows officers on patrol.

The players, who are often many miles away, look up their opponent's addresses in phone directories, sometimes using services that can find unlisted numbers. They also exploit online programs that trick 911 dispatchers into believing an emergency call is coming from the victim's phone or address. All the while, they conceal their own identities and locations.

Authorities spent an estimated $100,000 to send more than 60 officers in April to the hoax in Long Beach, New York. Investigators said the caller was upset over losing a game of Call of Duty when he called police using Skype. SWAT officers found only a teenager wearing headphones.

In Bradenton, Florida, at least 15 officers showed up at the home of a professional video game player on Aug. 31 after a caller posing as his young daughter phoned in a report that he was armed and drunk. Instead, they found him playing Minecraft for a live audience over Twitch.tv, an online network with millions of viewers.

"The officers responding do not know, other than the information they're getting over the radio, exactly what is going on," said Bradenton police Capt. William Fowler.

Less than a week later, police received another bogus call routed through the man's phone that made it appear he had called in a bomb threat to a Bradenton gas station.

A Connecticut man was arrested Sept. 10 on federal charges that he made swatting calls there and in at least four other states. Authorities say Matthew Tollis, 21, belonged to a group that referred to itself as TeAM Crucifix or Die. Other members live in the United Kingdom, according to the FBI, which is still trying to learn their identities.

Swatting captured headlines several years ago, when a series of celebrity homes were targeted in Los Angeles. Police were so concerned about copycat crimes that they stopped releasing any public information when a hoax occurred. Officers made at least one arrest, a juvenile who targeted Justin Bieber and Ashton Kutcher.

"You can literally do it from around the world," said Justin Cappos, assistant professor of computer science at New York University. "It can be very challenging (to solve) depending on the sophistication of the person doing it."

Realizing the difficulty, police in Littleton, Colorado, sought help from FBI agents in Denver who are specially trained to solve cyber-crime.

Grohol, the psychologist, said the prevalence of live game-streaming might be one reason for the trend. As the victim in the Colorado case, Jordan Mathewson, put it to KMGH-TV: "They get to see all this go down right before their eyes and, you know, it's fun to them."

Intensely competitive war games that blur the lines of fantasy and reality could also contribute, said Dr. Kimberly Young, a psychologist who directs the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery in Bradford, Pennsylvania.

"They want to win at all costs, including jeopardizing someone's safety," she said. "Real life becomes almost meaningless because they're so entrenched and involved in these games. Swatting, to them, seems like part of the game."

A video of the Aug. 27 incident in Littleton posted on YouTube shows Mathewson playing a first-person shooter game when he hears officers approaching.

"I think we're getting swatted," he says, raising his hands as heavily armed officers shout for him to get on the ground. He drops, and officers handcuff and frisk him.

"That's live streaming," Mathewson tells the officers. "I guess a joker thought it would be funny to call you guys in."

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts ... -opponents
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Re: SWATting

Postby coffin_dodger » Fri Sep 19, 2014 9:20 pm

Oh man, this is good.

This could only happen in a comfortable, secure yet paranoid first-world society obsessed with weapons, insecurity and an increasing tendency to over-react and meet any possible situation with maximum force and violence. The US has got such fun times ahead. I'm sure I read this week that some US school districts are starting to get humvee type military vehicles and heavy weapons in case of another columbine or sandy hook. \<]
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Re: SWATting

Postby elfismiles » Mon Dec 14, 2015 1:10 pm

Image

The Serial Swatter
Internet trolls have learned to exploit our over-militarized
police. It's a crime that's hard to stop — and hard to prosecute.
By JASON FAGONENOV. 24, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/magaz ... atter.html


The Switch
Cyberbullying insurance? That’s a real thing one company is offering in the United Kingdom.
By Andrea Peterson December 11

It's no secret that online trolling can be disruptive. Some of its most extreme forms like swatting -- where a harasser fakes an emergency to get police to raid a victim's home -- are real world safety threats.

Now a insurer is offering some customers in the United Kingdom benefits to help offset the costs of trolling. Chubb insurance will include cyberbullying coverage as part of its personal insurance package -- providing up to £50,000, or roughly $75,000, that could be used for things like help from online experts for victims and counseling, or even covering lost income if the victim is off work for more than a week due to the harassment -- according to the Telegraph.

The company defines cyberbullying as "three or more acts by the same person or group to harass, threaten or intimidate a customer," the Financial Times reported. The company did not immediately respond to a Washington Post inquiry about the coverage.

The Internet can sometimes be a pretty nasty place -- 73 percent of American adults online have seen someone be harassed online and 40 percent have personally experienced it, according Pew Research center study released last year.

In extreme cases, trolling can almost take over a victim's life. “I feel helpless,” Amy Stater, the victim of a sustained campaign of online harassment apparently linked to her son's online activities, told Fusion earlier this year. “I can’t get a job, my marriage is over. Not a day goes by that I don’t wonder if it would be easier if I take my own life,” she said.

This new insurance benefit seems to be a shift toward acknowledging just how damaging that type of situation can be.

"We see insurance as helping our clients get back to how they were before the incident occurred -- whether it's an incident that affects their home or as a person," Tara Parchment, UK and Ireland private clients manager, told the Telegraph. "So we still help to restore homes, cars and belongings that have suffered physical harm or damage, but increasingly it's about the person and how they cope."


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... d-kingdom/
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